Ohio county may let people file in court from home

Published: April 23, 2012 8:45AM

COLUMBUS, Ohio (AP) -- The county that includes Columbus is testing an electronic court filing system that would let residents with Internet access file online for divorce, child custody or protection orders.

The Columbus Dispatch (http://bit.ly/I3fWfg ) reports a test program in Franklin County allows lawyers to electronically file cases in domestic court. It's expected to be open to the public by summer.

The court clerk says people with no legal representation filed half of the nearly 5,000 domestic cases in 2011.

The Web-based filing is part of a system aimed at streamlining cases and saving paper. The clerk hopes to get the county's whole judicial filing system online by late next year.

Some lawyers have complained about the system not instantly recognizing cases as filed and about paying a vendor to process payments.